Philadelphia Phillies: Will Scott Kingery be most improved?

Entering the second season of a 6-year deal, could the young Phillies infielder be headed toward a big 2019?

An interesting remark about the Philadelphia Phillies infielder-outfielder Scott Kingery, discovered by Phillies Nation writer Tim Kelly, begs an interesting question about that player as the Fightin’s prepare for the 2019 season: What, in fact, should the Phillies do with their young player, roughly a year after signing him to a huge contract for a player with no MLB experience?

See, what Kelly found out Phillies manager Gabe Kapler said recently on a podcast was this: “If I had to lay my money down on the most improved player in 2019, I’d probably lay it on Scott Kingery. He’s gonna be a lot better than the version we saw last year.”

Is that so? Such a top improvement, assuming some other Phillies also improve, would certainly be nice since Kingery will only be in the second year this season of a six-year contract (with further options) worth $23 million.

The problem is where to play the young man the Phillies are tied to, and tied to expensively come years five and six.

In improving their team by the additions of Jean Segura and Andrew McCutchen, the Phillies seem to have cut down on the defensive options for Kingery. Segura will surely be the starting shortstop, where Kingery mostly played last season, and McCutchen will be one of the starting outfielders, likely in right or center.

Gabe Kapler would say to that, “No worries. Kingery is versatile.” Theoretically, he can play well at second, short, and third, as well as in all the outfield slots. But statistically, the 24-year-old version of the player lagged behind both Maikel Franco and Cesar Hernandez, the 2018 everyday third and second basemen, in batting average and productivity, and was arguably only slightly better than Franco defensively. (Look at errors and chances for Kingery at short and for the other two where they always played, DH games notwithstanding.) Moreover, Hernandez played better defensively on a broken foot for an extended period.

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And what if the Phillies add Manny Machado or Bryce Harper?

Kelly speculates, “Should Kingery have a breakout second season in 2019, he figures to be in the lineup on an everyday basis,” but it’s difficult to see how he breaks into the everyday lineup without doing an imitation of Bugs Bunny in that old cartoon where he plays every position. Again. And this year Kingery will definitely have to be better, and better early on.

Plenty of people have speculated that even with most of his games at shortstop in ’18 because of injuries to others, Kingery did not benefit from Kapler’s vision of him as a super-utilityman.

It would seem the Phillies might well have to trade either Franco or Hernandez, and, perhaps, an outfielder for Kingery to have a good chance of fulfilling his manager’s recent prediction.